My Top 10 Experiences of Freshmen Year (in no particular order)

SC Outfitters: I’ve always been an outdoorsy person and as a way to ensure that I would still be able to hike I joined SC Outfitters. The club puts on many trips throughout the year guided by other USC undergrads so it’s a great way to get outside and meet more people. This year I went on a couple trips, including a hike in Angeles National Park and a two-day camping trip at Big Bear Lake.

SC Outfitters adventure at Big Bear

The Viterbi Luau: During Welcome Week, Viterbi puts on a luau to allow students to get to know each other better, as well as the opportunity to meet professors. I had such a great experience limboing and dancing, and it really made me excited to go to a school with such a fun group of people.

Viterbi Luau!

USC Football Games: I came from a high school where football was not a big deal and though I occasionally watched at home, nothing prepared me for the experience of going to a USC football game. I have never felt more pride than wearing gold and cardinal and standing with thousands of my classmates chanting and holding up that V for victory. Rushing the field after beating Stanford (I’m yelling TIMBERRR) is definitely one of my most memorable moments from freshmen year.

Sitting in the student section

Rushing the field after the win against Stanford

Dance Marathon: Coming to SC, I knew I wanted to get involved with community service so I joined the Dance Marathon Planning Committee which works to put on a 12 hour event (where participants are not allowed to sit) to raise money for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. I had the opportunity to volunteer at the hospital and help Dance Marathon raise over $60,000 with over a thousand participants.

Dance line at Dance Marathon

ELP Retreat: I was part of the Emerging Leaders Program this year, which is a program designed to teach us about our leadership strengths and how to best use them. For the retreat we went to Malibu with Order of the Torch and spent two days learning how to be a better leader and becoming really close with a great group of people.

Malibu with ELP

USC Club Distance Running Team: I ran Cross Country and Track in high school and though I was not skilled enough to run on our Division 1 team, I still wanted a way to keep in shape. USC has over 100 club and intramural teams to allow anyone at any level to play sports. One of my favorite runs from USC is to the Staples Center.

Run to the Staples Center

Viterbi Freshmen Academy: As a freshmen in Viterbi, it is mandatory that you take a class called Freshmen Academy which is designed to allow you to meet other engineers, experience a variety of engineering disciplines, and to teach you the ins and outs of Viterbi and USC as a whole. Some of my favorite highlights included a beach trip to Santa Monica, building a tower out of gumdrops and toothpicks, and playing Infiltration (similar to Capture the Flag) with the whole Viterbi freshmen class.

Our gumdrop tower facing the fan

Infiltration with David

Exploring LA: Even though I didn’t have a car at USC, I have still been able to explore the area pretty easily. I promise you will never be bored in Los Angeles from the delicious restaurants (Syrup in DTLA!!), to the incredible art scene. My favorites include Amoeba Records, The Last Bookstore, LACMA, Griffith’s Observatory, Manhattan Beach, and Runyon Canyon.

LACMA at night

Santa Monica

Runyon Canyon with the roomie

Inspirational Talks: At USC we are lucky to have amazing speakers throughout the year. I went to a number of events for free this year put on by Visions and Voices and other organizations. I listened to author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller, the man behind Humans of New York, Brandon Stanton, the founders of Tinder, and a Women in Tech presentation by the founder of the revolutionary Ouya game console, Julie Uhrman to name a few. It’s the most productive form of procrastination I have found.

Alexandra Fuller Talk

Brandon Stanton from HONY

Technology and the Environment, Freshmen Seminar: USC has a unique program for freshmen where they offer 2 unit classes of around 12 students each that cover a variety of topics. This allows students to make great connections with each other and a professor while learning about a fun topic once a week with no homework. I took Technology and the Environment with ISE professor, Dr. Meshkati. He quickly became my favorite professor at USC and I really looked forward to the discussion-based class that combined two things that I was passionate about.